


Into the Abyss

by Kinni



Series: V3 Ultimate Shipping: All the Pairings! [3]
Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - No Killing Game, F/F, Fluff, Light Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-23 12:22:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14934201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kinni/pseuds/Kinni
Summary: Tsumugi journeys into the abyss in search of discovery, with an insatiable thirst for knowledge and a desire to see what could be at the bottom.Maki, her partner, isn't moved by any of those things. Instead, she simply journeys for the sake of Tsumugi.





	Into the Abyss

The Abyss. It was a simple but ominous name for a very complex place.

The Abyss was perhaps the most famous of the so called “Dangerous Grounds” in the entire world. Countless powerful adventurers had gone in there, searching for the secrets of the place, but only a fraction of those had returned alive, and an even smaller fraction had returned intact. They came back with stories of monstrous beings, bizarre phenomena and impossible places.

A few even managed to bring back valuable things from inside the depths, which only increased the reputation of the Abyss even further. However, it truly was far too dangerous, to the point where it had been nicknamed “The Graveyard of Fools”.

And even so, people continued to come, and it wasn't just because of the possibility of treasure, but simply due to the mystery of the place itself. What was its origin? How did it work? And most importantly, what was at the bottom? No one had ever reached and lived to tell the tale, so that was considered the greatest mystery in the world.

And of all of those who were seeking that mystery, special attention has to be paid to a specific duo: Two teenage girls who had already gone farther down than anyone else who managed to return alive in recorded history.

+0+

Maki was a girl with cold eyes. She was an orphan who had been previously forced into being a child soldier, and had subsequently killed quite a lot of people, so that wasn't something difficult to understand. Still, all of that was part of the past, and had no relation to the reason why she was now in the Abyss.

That reason was the other girl, Tsumugi. Her parents had been adventurers who died to the “Yin Yang Fire and Ice Cave”, but that hadn't seemed to discourage her from following their footsteps. She was always smiling, but her broadest smiles were reserved for the moment of seeing something she had never saw before... or for Maki.

Tsumugi had found Maki during one of her earlier journeys. The latter girl had been in a dead-end existence, cutting wood to earn money and spending most of her time wasted, since she had been directionless after finishing a particularly violent campaign of revenge. Tsumugi convinced her to follow in an expedition, and from there the two became inseparable, an adventuring duo famous for surviving the most dangerous places in the world.

Still, when it was discovered that they were going to the Abyss, most people lamented the loss of such young and talented adventurers.

+0+

It was just another day on the depths of the Abyss for the two of them, which meant that it was filled with danger. The two had spent the whole morning running away from a swarm of bone-eating bats, and the fossilized tree they finally found as a shelter was already occupied by some very hungry mantis-panthers, so it was a battle to the death.

Maki was swinging her six-foot long sword with her right hand, using its reach to block five enemies at once. That was technically her off-hand, but her left arm had been useless ever since it was hit by a sphere of burning acid, being only capable of very limited movement, and was placed inside her armor.

Speaking of the armor, it was something made by Tsumugi out of some very hard shells and bones they had found on the way, and it proved its resilience, since it could resist the slashes from the leg blades of the monsters, which could cut through solid rock.

In fact, pretty much everything they were using was made by Tsumugi, since their initial equipment didn't last long under the stresses brought upon by the Abyss. Maki's sword had been alchemically reforged countless times, Tsumugi's own armor combined hard plates and cloth made from the pelt of a particularly dangerous predator species, and her weapons, a wooden staff and a large and sharp leaf, had been refined from parts of a tree with magical properties Tsumugi had named “Celestial Tree”.

However, the painted marbles that she wore in place of her eyes had been made by Maki. (Her original eyes were eaten by a parasite that would have eaten her brain as well had they not found another parasite capable of preying on it and infected Tsumugi with it.)

While Maki held off the main warrior bugs, Tsumugi had set a corner of her leaf blade on fire and was using the smoke to keep away the countless tiny harvester bugs, also slowly poisoning them.

However, that still left the digger queen, who was the most troublesome, constantly digging through the earth, making tunnels she would therefore collapse in order to screw with the balance of the two, since being smarter than most bugs, she knew that trying to fight them head on was a losing proposition.

The piles of dead monsters made that pretty clear (though most of them had died under Tsumugi's bombs, and she had none left).

It was quite a hassle for the two girls, since having to deal with footing issues on top of everything else that was going on at the same time... But they had dealt with worse things before.

Tsumugi had been observing the patterns the digger was following, and she also kept the staff touching the ground, using it to feel the underground vibrations. And when she felt that the time was right, Tsumugi shouted “Maki!” and stabbed the staff into the ground.

The other girl leapt backwards, gaining some distance from her opponents, and ran full on in Tsumugi's direction. The latter held the staff with both hands, shuddering when it was hit by something under the ground, but holding fast.

Maki covered the last of the distance with a leap, driving her sword into the ground by using the staff as a guide, and was rewarded with the wet sound of it sinking into flesh. Tsumugi ripped her staff off the ground and met the first approaching warrior bug with a slash of her leaf, cutting deep into its shell.

Maki followed up by cutting the enemy in half with her sword, while Tsumugi waved the leaf again to produce more smoke. With that, everything became a lot easier. Soon after, the rest of the warrior bugs were killed by their combination, with Tsumugi hindering them with staff and leaf, while Maki finished them off.

After that, they dealt with the rest of the harvester bugs before checking around just to make sure there was no other monster hidden nearby, finally relaxing when they were sure it wasn't going to get them killed.

Maki started to set up camp while Tsumugi went to scavenge the bodies of the monsters and their nests in search of useful supplies. Despite being blind, she was a lot better at that stuff than Maki.

After setting the camp, Tsumugi was still out, so Maki took the time to remove her several layers of armor, leaving only the tunic she wore below them. She could sleep while in armor, but it was very uncomfortable.

Tsumugi came soon after, holding two pieces of shell in her hands and with a giddy smile on her face.

“Maki, this is amazing!” She exclaimed, pretty much shoving the shells into Maki's face.

The other girl looked at her flatly for a moment before speaking:

“Okay, Tsumugi. Why don't you take your armor off and eat before telling me what is so amazing.”

“Okay, then!” Tsumugi agreed cheerily, and proceeded to do so while Maki took out some of their rations, which they both ate.

“So, the thing is...” Tsumugi returned to the previous subject suddenly “Both of those shells have a design of layered mandala, which is a design that doesn't exist anywhere in nature... except the abyss.”

“Hmm...” Maki was listening.

“And that design is everywhere here, existing within all sorts of unrelated animals and plants, and it gets more common the deeper we go...” She took a deep breath “I think this may be related to the secret of the abyss. There must be some influence at play here that shows itself through those patterns...”

“That's interesting.” Maki said.

It was, but truthfully speaking, Maki wasn't that interested in the secret of the abyss or anything of the sort, not like Tsumugi was, anyway. It was just that she would follow the other girl wherever she went, even if it was such a hellish place. Still, seeing Tsumugi's smile every time she found something new, or came up with a new theory... That was always a pleasure for Maki.

Tsumugi spoke a bit more about the things she discovered, and then yawned. Maki was about to tell her to get some sleep when the other girl crawled up to her and lay down on her chest.

Maki wrapped her arms around her, enjoying the feeling of closeness and warmth.

“I'm really happy you are with me, Maki.” She spoke “I can't imagine what it would be like being alone here.”

Maki kissed her forehead and spoke:

“And I can't imagine not being together with you.” She stopped for a moment “That is my happiness.” She concluded.

Tsumugi smiled again and kissed Maki “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Maki returned the kiss.

Tsumugi reached her hands to caress Maki's sides, and from there the two started kissing and touching each other gently, almost as if they wanted to show affection to every inch of the other's skin.

Some of their touches got pretty intimate, but neither Tsumugi nor Maki escalated the situation. They had made love before, but in that moment they were tired, and simply wanted to share a moment of contact and happiness.

And their moment didn't exactly end, so much as simply slow down more and more, until Tsumugi and Maki were simply holding each other close. They crawled into the tent without even changing position, and soon after both of them were sleeping peacefully, reassured in their mutual contact.

+0+

On the next day(though the abyss didn't really have days, since there was no sun), Maki and Tsumugi set off again after the latter replenished their supplies.

“I wonder what we're going to find next...” Tsumugi said out loud.

'I hope this happiness can continue...' Maki thought.

**Author's Note:**

> This story was inspired by the anime Made in Abyss. It's not a crossover since this abyss is pretty different, but the influence is undeniable.
> 
> Canon Tsumugi was extremely obssessed, so I felt that having her be the one who obssessed over the abyss was simply natural. Meanwhile, Maki is the type who would follow the people she loves straight into hell if they wanted to go there. From those two ideas, came this story.
> 
> What did you guys think? I'm going to do quite a lot of alternate universes over the course of this series, including the next one, the Korekiyo X Gonta story. I'll see you there.


End file.
